Price each beauty service from its cost floor: product, your time including setup and cleanup at the hourly pay you want, your share of overheads, and the card fee divided out. Set the price above that floor based on demand, experience, and local alternatives, then announce any change in person and in writing before it applies. Copying the studio down the street skips the step that matters: knowing your own numbers.
Free worksheet
Calculate one service’s price floor
Bring your service length, supply costs, and monthly overhead. Work out one floor, compare it with your current price, then plan and track any change.
Get the pricing worksheetThis guide is for estheticians, lash artists, wax specialists, stylists, and small spa owners. It does not recommend what any service should cost. Your market, costs, and positioning decide that.
Work out your cost floor for each service
The cost floor is the lowest price at which a service pays for itself. Below it, every booking loses money, however busy you are.
For one service at a time, add up:
| Cost | How to estimate it |
|---|---|
| Product and supplies | What you use per appointment, from your supplier invoices |
| Your time | Appointment minutes plus setup and cleanup, at the hourly pay you want |
| Overheads | Rent, utilities, software, insurance, and marketing, divided across the hours your appointments actually occupy |
| Payment fees | The percentage your card processor takes from the final price |
Here is the method worked through for one 60-minute service. The letters match the pricing worksheet.
One service, field by field
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Product and supplies per visit (P) | $12.00 |
| Occupied time: 60 minutes of service plus 15 minutes of setup and cleanup (T) | 75 minutes |
| Hourly pay the owner wants (H) | $40.00 per hour |
| Owner pay for this visit: H × T ÷ 60 (Y) | $50.00 |
| Monthly overheads (O) | $3,000 per month |
| Hours occupied by appointments per month, including setup and cleanup (B) | 100 hours |
| Overhead per occupied hour: O ÷ B (R) | $30.00 per hour |
| Overhead for this visit: R × T ÷ 60 (V) | $37.50 |
| Subtotal: P + Y + V (S) | $99.50 |
| Card fee rate (F) | 3 percent, written 0.03 |
| Cost floor: S ÷ (1 minus F) | $99.50 ÷ 0.97 ≈ $102.58 |
Why divide instead of adding 3 percent. The processor takes its fee from the whole price, including the fee you added. $99.50 plus 3 percent is about $102.49. Three percent of that is about $3.07, which leaves about $99.42, short of your subtotal. At $102.58, the fee is about $3.08 and you keep $99.50.
Count time the same way in both places. T includes setup and cleanup, so B must too: the hours your appointments actually occupy the room, not the hours you are open and not treatment minutes alone. If B counts only hands-on time while T includes setup, the math charges each visit more overhead than the month actually costs. If B counts open hours, it charges less.
What the floor leaves out. Profit, income tax, sales tax where it applies, tips, retail, and the cost of redos or refunds. Hours you spend on messages, admin, and content are not in T either. Raise H to cover them, or add them to your overheads.
Owner pay is not profit. Y is your wage for the time in the room. Profit is what the business keeps after you are paid: the money for slow months, equipment, training, and growth. The floor contains none. Set it separately, above the floor. Your accountant can check the tax side for your situation.
Decide where to sit above the floor
The floor tells you where not to go. Where you land above it depends on:
- Demand. If your openings fill weeks ahead and new clients wait, demand may support a higher price. If openings go unfilled, look at why inquiries are not turning into bookings before you lower anything.
- Experience and results. Training, specialization, and a portfolio people can see all support a higher price. Put them on your booking page, not just in your head.
- The experience around the service. The consultation, comfort, aftercare guidance, and follow-up are part of what clients pay for.
- Local alternatives. Look at what similar providers nearby offer and charge, then decide whether you compete on convenience, specialization, or experience. Matching the lowest price nearby is a position too, and a hard one to hold.
Write down, in one sentence, who each service is for and why they choose you. The price should make sense to that person.
Should I discount to fill my calendar?
Not by default. Protect the floor and change the offer first. In Beauty Biz Pro’s spa campaigns we use three offer shapes: a complimentary consultation for programs that need a conversation first, an added enhancement on the first visit so the service stays at full price, and a first-visit incentive kept to the first visit only. Our wax studio campaigns have also run first visits at the regular price, led by a short video of the owner and the studio.
Check any incentive against your floor before it runs. If the first-visit price lands below the floor, every new client costs you money until they come back.
An offer is not a discount
Tony’s point: an offer and a discount are different things. An offer is what the client gets in exchange for booking. He splits offers into two kinds, value-driven and price-driven, and a price-driven offer is a discount. He keeps his own price-driven offers for past clients in his database, people who already know the value.
Takeaway: lead new-client ads with what the visit includes. If you also use a lower first-visit price, keep it to the first visit and check it against your floor before it runs.
Present prices so people can decide
A price is easier to accept when the client can see what it buys. Compare a typical menu line with one that answers the questions before someone has to DM them.
The same facial, two menu lines
Before: “Facial … [price]”
Facials
Signature Facial
[Your price] · 75 minutes
Includes [skin check], [cleanse], [exfoliation], [mask], and [a written home-care note].
- The same name on your website, booking page, and social profiles.
- Price and time together, so the client can judge the value.
- What happens in the room, in the client's words, not product names.
- What changes the price, stated up front instead of at checkout.
- If the price varies, show a clear starting price and explain what changes it.
- Offer a consultation for services where suitability needs a professional’s judgment.
- Keep the same name and price everywhere: website, booking page, social profiles, and printed menu.
Unclear pricing creates more “how much?” messages, and each one is a chance for someone to go quiet. Our guide on getting more esthetician clients covers replying to price questions quickly and usefully. If those messages arrive while you are with a client, Beauty Biz AI’s AI Receptionist can answer price questions from your approved menu and hand anything else to you.
Use packages and memberships carefully
Packages and memberships can bring steadier income and more regular visits, but they are still prices. Check each one against the cost floor for the visits it includes, including visits clients pay for but do not use. Keep the terms simple: what is included, how long it lasts, and what happens if a client wants to pause or cancel.
Run a four-week pricing review
-
Week 1
Calculate the cost floor for your top three services
Keep: the pricing worksheet.
-
Week 2
Compare each price with its floor and your demand
Keep: a list of services below the floor or fully booked.
-
Week 3
Decide on changes, choose the rule for booked appointments, and write the notice
Keep: new prices, the effective date, and the notice copy.
-
Week 4
Tell clients, then update your booking page on the effective date
Keep: the date each notice went out and the questions you received.
Four weeks is a planning period, not a promise of a result. When the floor is done and you want help with how the menu and booking page present it, see booking funnel support. The last step, telling clients, has its own section below.
How do I tell clients my prices are going up?
Tell regulars before the new price applies, in person and in writing, and set an effective date so nobody hears it first at checkout. Recalculate your floor before you pick the number, choose one rule for appointments already booked, and give one true reason in one sentence. The amount, their budget, and the value they see all shape how clients respond.
- Choose the date and the new prices. Start from your recalculated floor.
- Decide one rule for appointments already booked. Either anything already on the calendar keeps its quoted price, or the new price applies to every visit from the effective date. Pick one and use it for everyone.
- Give notice. Tell existing clients ahead of the change, in person and in writing, and update your booking page on the effective date.
- Give the true reason, briefly. One or two sentences is enough. Use only reasons that are true for you. You do not need to apologize.
- Apply it consistently. If you offer a grace period, give it to everyone it covers.
Price change notice
Hi [first name], thank you for [coming to see me]. From [effective date], my prices for [services] will change. [One true sentence on why, for example: product costs have gone up, or I completed training in [skill] this year.]
[Keep one of these two sentences:]
Option A: Any appointment booked before [cutoff date, for example the day this notice goes out] keeps the price you were quoted, even if the visit is after [effective date].
Option B: The new prices apply to every visit on or after [effective date], including visits booked earlier.
The new price list is on my booking page: [link]. Reply here with any questions.
If a client asks “Can I keep my old rate?” “[Under Option A: Anything booked before [cutoff date] keeps the price you were quoted.] After that, the new prices apply to everyone.”
If a client asks “Why has this changed?” “[The true reason, in one sentence.] I wanted you to hear it from me before your next visit, not at checkout.”
Watch what happens after a change
Track the numbers for a few months after a price change rather than reacting to one quiet week:
- Bookings per week, for new and returning clients separately
- Revenue per booked hour
- How many regular clients rebooked at the new price
- Questions or objections you hear, word for word
If revenue per booked hour rises and your calendar stays healthy, the change is holding. If returning clients drop, review margin and retention together: the reasons clients give, the size of the change, and how it was explained. Do not assume one cause before you look.
Free worksheet
Calculate one service’s price floor
Bring your service length, supply costs, and monthly overhead. Work out one floor, compare it with your current price, then plan and track any change.
Inside
- One cost floor, field by field, with the card fee divided out
- Price versus floor and demand for your top services
- Who each service is for and what the booking page shows
- A price change plan: new prices, effective date, notice wording
- Before and after tracking: bookings and revenue per booked hour
Business coaching
Want help presenting your prices and offers?
Business coaching with Tony Cruz works through offers and pricing in the context of your goals, and how your menu and booking page present them. It is business coaching, not accounting, tax, or financial advice.
See business coaching
